Sugar Cane Workers Given Tests For Aids

More than 6,000 farm laborers from the West Indies had to pass blood tests showing they had not been exposed to AIDS before being permitted to cut sugar cane in the fields of Belle Glade this season.

Walter Kates, labor manager for the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, said on Tuesday that the governments of five West Indies islands apparently decided to add the recently available AIDS exposure test to the health screening measures already applied to the workers.

``We didn`t ask them to do it. The governments of the West Indies nations decided to do it on their own,`` said Kates.

Laborers from Jamaica, Barbados, Dominica, St. Vincent and St. Lucia, the countries conducting the AIDS tests, have been subjected to tests for venereal disease and other illnesses before working in Florida.

The association handles arrangements for what Kates described as ``the vast majority`` of sugar cane farm hands imported each harvest season in the Everglades Agricultural Area.

``I understand they tested approximately 6,000 to 6,500 people, and I understand the number of cases found was very negligible,`` said Kates. ``I think you`ll find that Jamaica and the eastern Caribbean nations have never had a problem with AIDS.``

The World Health Organization`s most recent report lists eight confirmed AIDS cases on the five islands. The islands have a combined population of about 3 million people. Barbados, which has as population of about 290,000 reported the most AIDS cases, four, among the five islands.

In contrast, Belle Glade, which has about 20,000 residents, has had more than 40 confirmed AIDS cases, giving the town the highest incidence of AIDS in the nation.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome is caused by a virus that disables the body`s immune system leaving victims unable to fight off infection.

The AIDS screening test can tell whether a person has been exposed to the disease by determining whether the person`s blood has antibodies to the AIDS virus. The test, however, cannot predict whether a person will develop AIDS.

Health experts said they doubted the usefulness of the test as a method of screening workers.

``It really isn`t necessary to screen employees because AIDS cannot be transmitted through casual contact,`` said Chuck Fallis, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

Harold Edwards, Washington liaison officer for the West Indies Central Labor Organization, declined to comment on the AIDS testing. His organization acts as a go-between for the FFVA and the island governments.

Under a special agreement with the federal government, Florida`s multibillion dollar sugar cane industry imports thousands of cane cutters and other workers for the harvest. The workers usually arrive in late October or early November and stay until mid-March.

Much of the state`s sugar cane fields are in Palm Beach County. About 305,000 acres of the county`s most fertile soils -- rich organic muck -- are in sugar cane production, according to state reports.